As the U.S. President hits Britain, Theresa May needs a touch of the Trumps

The PM is missing is the optimism, dynamism and leadership needed to reject the negative, defeatist view of the civil service bureaucrats who see Brexit as a threat to be minimised

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By Steve Hilton

13th July 2018, 12:20 am

Updated: 13th July 2018, 9:21 am

AMERICA’S most famous lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, has been in hot water recently – an experience that tells you a lot about how Donald Trump has scrambled people’s brains.

Dershowitz once defended OJ Simpson, but the stick he got for that was nothing compared to the attacks he’s received for defending President Trump over alleged legal abuses in the ongoing Trump/Russia investigation.

Theresa May could learn something from U.S. President Donald Trump on his UK visit

Dershowitz is a lifelong Democrat. He backed Hillary Clinton. And yet this year he has been completely ostracised by his former friends and the chattering classes at their swanky summer retreats.

So it’s with some trepidation that I write here in defence of Donald Trump. I can predict the howls of outrage: “He’s a fascist! He loves dictators! He kills babies!” (Or perhaps: “He is a baby — a giant inflatable one”). Yep, we get it: You don’t like Trump.

Bashing Trump is certainly fashionable. But there’s a narrow-mindedness and bigotry to the attacks that is both unintelligent and unattractive.

Look, I’m not a fan of everything Donald Trump has said or done. On my weekly TV show on Fox News I’ve criticised him over remarks he has made and some of his policies.

US President Donald Trump talks candidly to The Sun about the British Prime Minister Theresa May and Brexit

Bashing Trump is certainly fashionable, but there’s a narrow-mindedness and bigotry to the attacks that is both unintelligent and unattractive

On top of that, I’ve pursued the dodgy dealings and conflicts of interest of some of Donald Trump’s cabinet members.

But is there another side to the story?

Because of the snobbery and bias of much of the British media who look down their noses at Trump because he’s a businessman not a policy wonk, because he likes McDonald’s not haute cuisine — and because he speaks in plain English instead of the highfalutin’ bureaucratic claptrap you normally get from politicians, I suspect most people in the UK get a uniformly negative presentation of the Trump presidency.

Well, I like to think of Sun readers as reasonable and open-minded, so I know you will want to see things in their proper perspective.

Trump promised to slash red tape and cut taxes and he has delivered spectacularly

Back in 2016 I thought Donald Trump would make a better president than Hillary Clinton for three main reasons.

FIRST, he promised to get the economy moving, to reverse the decades-long slump in jobs and incomes that was the result of the elitist policies pursued by Democrats and Republicans. Trump promised to slash red tape and cut taxes.

He has delivered spectacularly: A massive reduction in regulations and a dramatic tax reform have led to a transformation in business confidence and investment.

That translated into the first significant pay rises for ordinary Americans for decades, and historic falls in unemployment — including the lowest unemployment rates ever recorded for black Americans.

The biggest change of all might turn out to be Trump’s assault on the unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats of the Deep State

The SECOND big argument for Trump was his pledge to control immigration. The elitists focused on his harsh rhetoric. But working Americans understood what none of the establishment politicians was prepared to admit: That uncontrolled immigration meant an uncontrolled flow of cheap, imported labour that undermined wage rates.

Again, Trump has delivered. Immigration enforcement has been stepped up and the overall numbers are down. Trump wants to go further but needs Congress to get its act together.

The THIRD key promise was to “Drain The Swamp”. By this he meant taking on the system of cronyism and corruption in Washington DC that puts the real power in the hands of big business, wealthy donors, shadowy lobbyists and faceless bureaucrats in the “Deep State”.

Here too there has been progress. There is more to do but the Trump administration has implemented the toughest ever clampdown on federal government employees leaving their jobs to lobby from the private sector.

Britain needs a Prime Minister who truly believes that leaving the EU behind is a golden opportunity to make the country richer and fairer

And the biggest change of all might turn out to be Trump’s assault on the unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats of the Deep State — not just by cutting regulations but by appointing judges at every level who are committed to reining in the power of the bureaucracy.

All this go-ahead drive and energy is such a contrast with Theresa May’s lacklustre and uninspiring drift.

Yes, she is decent, hard-working and utterly sincere in her sense of duty.

But that’s not enough at this crucial moment for Britain.

What’s missing is the optimism, dynamism and leadership needed to reject the negative, defeatist view of the civil service bureaucrats who see Brexit as a threat to be minimised.

Instead, Britain needs a Prime Minister who truly believes that leaving the EU behind is a golden opportunity to make the country richer and fairer.

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MUM'S AGONY

Obsessing about “the deal” with Brussels is a waste of time and energy. The impact of any deal is trivial compared to the difference that a positive populist policy agenda could make: Investing in skills and infrastructure to boost workers’ productivity and wages; cutting business rates and regulations to help entrepreneurs; cutting the corporate tax rate to ten per cent to make Britain the world’s most attractive business location.

Whether you love or loathe Donald Trump — and remember, in America he has the second highest own-party approval ratings of any president since World War Two — everyone in Britain should hope that Theresa May picks up some of his positive, pro-enterprise exuberance.

Steve Hilton is David Cameron’s former director of strategy.

US President Donald Trump talks candidly to The Sun ​about Europe's perception of him